1. Field of Invention
This invention relates, in general, to the field of animal litter box liners and, more specifically, to a perforated liner for animal litter boxes, which liner is to be used in combination with a type of litter which forms clumps when moistened.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is axiomatic that animals maintained exclusively indoors, most often (and for convenience referred to as) cats, require a litter box for purposes of urination and defecation. Known litter boxes consist of plastic or waxed cardboard pans, trays, or the like, sometimes accompanied by a liner such as a plastic bag or sheeting. Unlined cardboard litter trays obviously have a very limited life span in that they become urine soaked quite rapidly Unlined plastic pans and plastic or cardboard trays having plastic liners have a more extended life, but still entail other drawbacks.
Negative aspects of conventional litter boxes include the following:
Pouring large amounts of litter (for example, five to ten pounds per litter box) from a bag into the cat litter box or from the litter box into a waste receptacle necessarily introduces a large amount of clay dust into the local atmosphere. Moreover, when such usual litter pan arrangements are filled with conventional ground clay litter, generally having a grain diameter of up to approximately one-half centimeter, the user cat's urine will drain quickly to the bottom of the pan where it sits and only slowly absorbs into the litter. Thus a strong ammonia odor is necessarily released to the general whereabouts, often despite the addition of so-called odor-reducing granuals.
Unlined pans thus require frequent dumping and rinsing to reduce the urine odor in the home. Although lined pans do not usually have to be rinsed, they nevertheless must be changed frequently. Thus, with known cat litter boxes a great deal of the usual ground clay litter is wasted as relatively clean litter is discarded along with that which is soiled.
A new type of cat litter is currently available and widely marketed under the trademarks or trade names of, for example, NATURAL SELECT, SUPER SAND, and SCOOP AWAY (NATURAL SELECT is a registered trademark of Absorben Clay Products, SUPER SAND is a registered trademark of Chip's Pet Products, Inc. and SCOOP AWAY is a registered trademark of A & M Pet Products, Inc.). The clay in this new type of litter is ground very finely, to a grain diameter much like sand, of approximately one to two millimeters, and is formed in part of Wyoming bentonite or attapulgite clay in addition to a proportion of the usual type of clay used in litter preparations.
This new type of litter has the advantage that it forms large hard clumps of approximately 1 to 2 inches in diameter when in contact with cat urine (or other liquid). This new clumping litter therefore permits simple removal of the clumps by, for example, scooping them up with an appropriate tool and shaking off excess grains of clean litter, rather than discarding the entire boxful of litter in order to eliminate that which is soiled. This allows the clean litter which remains to be maintained in a nearly odor free state for an extended period of time relative to conventional non-clumping litters.
The new cat litter box liner described and claimed herein is designed specifically for use with this new type of clump forming litter.